Have you ever been bullied? After watching the video to this day by: Shane Koyczan, I just had one of those “oh wow” moments. I love this saying because I think it’s so true and really says a lot. There's always a little truth behind every "just kidding", a little knowledge behind every "I don't know", a little emotion behind every "I don't care" and a little pain behind every "It's okay" I think that’s so powerful. In the video the message I thought he was trying to get across was words hurt. People don’t just forget when they get humiliated. And he was trying to say there’s something beautiful about everyone and if you can’t see that you’re not trying hard enough. I’ve seen it be done in the past and they can mentally or physically hurt you and it sticks. The easy part is forgiving the hard part is forgetting. And bullies just do it if either you have what they don’t or that’s how it is at home, so they think it’s okay. The reason why I think it’s called “to this day” is because to this day kids are still bullying or getting bullied. Now that’s a world I think we all want to live in. But over all he’s saying, we will get through this together. I think if you watch it you will be as inspired as I was. If you do want to watch it go to you-tube and search up “to this day” it will come up as to this day by Shane Koyczan. I guarantee you it will move you.

For New Years, my mom, sister and I went to Cirque De Soleil. We had 3rd row center seats. We could see the show really well and they were always looking at us. There was a lizard guy, a clown, a pirate and a love story. There were lots of acrobats, tight rope walkers, gymnastics and juggling. My favourite part was when the girl (from the love story) did gymnastic tricks in a huge, clear tub of water. She was very strong and she could bring her legs over her head and then dive into the water. My least favourite part was when a girl was balancing Palm Tree branches one on top of the other. I didn't like it because it went on forever and it was kind of boring. I can't wait till I get to go again.

We have lots of Christmas traditions in our family. The first thing we do is make gingerbread cookies and houses. On December 1st we always get a chocolate advent calendar. But this year, my parents forgot to buy one and they were all gone when we went to get one. Next we bring out the tree and all of the decorations and ornaments. We gather all the presents to put underneath and shake them to try and find out what they are. For as long as I can remember we have always gone to see a Christmas light show in Vancouver either at Stanley Park or Van Deusen gardens. My family always gets together on Christmas Eve and we get to open one present, but not the biggest one. On Christmas morning I usually open my stocking with my sister before my parents get up. But sometimes, I wake up so early that my Mom allows me to open only one gift from my stocking. That was the year I woke up at 4am. Every year, Santa puts a mandarin orange in the toe of my stocking so I won't eat all junk. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we eat dinner with each sides of the family. These are my Christmas traditions, what are yours?

"OK, we have to pick your song, photo copy it, and tape it together all in a short period of time. OK?" Last friday night I had a piano practice. As usuall every Friday 5:30 to 6. But since I've missed the last couple of practices, I'm a little behind. Because guess what? I'll tell you what, my christmas recital is coming up, on the last day of school before christmas break, its a friday. You might be wondering what do you do in a piano recital? Well of course piano, but here's how the whole day goes. Are names are put on a list by our teachers choise, we wait until are name gets called, then we play are piece we've been working on for quite some time, we bow and listen to everybody else. Are teacher calls us up one by one and gives us little goody bags, then we all dash to the room you come into when you enter the church, and we all stuff are selves with all the little treats the students brought in. Its really fun and by the way the song I picked is called... Hark! the herald angels sing. Its a pretty and fun piece and I enjoy doing it. Do you play an instrument?"

Today Nov.12 I had a soccer tournament the day after remembrance day, in the shivering cold. I was the goalie 1st half and the 2nd half for the second game, out of the three games we played, then I was middle defense for the other two ones we played. The first game we lost 3-1 but then we won the next two games. It was really fun, and after the second game the whole team got invited to a teammates house for pizza to warm up. Then we came back and were ready to attack! It was an amazing experience for all of us. The tournament took us the whole day from 10:30 to 6:30, but it was totally worth it, hopefully we'll do it again soon.

]]>Tue, 06 Nov 2012 03:45:36 GMThttp://bettycooperdiv1.weebly.com/my-blog/my-new-carToday I got picked up from my best friends house, and my mom (who picked me up around 5) drove us straight to the honda car shop to pick up our brand new car the Honda CR-V. We got it in the colour white. You had to choose between white or black so of course we chose white. Its a really nice car. As soon as we got there my mom set me down with her laptop which i'm typing on right now and said to do my homework. Which was to write a journal. So I chose to write about this when I was looking over my shoulder because I couldn't resist, I saw my mom and a guy that works here signing a bunch of papers, so I got really excited because I never truly saw the car or sat in it, i've only ever looked up photo's.

Fall is about carving terrifying faces on bright orange pumpkins, stuffing ourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie un-till we're rolling on the floor with pain. Leaves curling up like grandmas and turning brown like roasted marsh-mellows. It's about the big puffy winter jackets , and jumping through big rain puddles in your new gum boot's. Having a soccer game in the never ending rain, drinking hot chocolate after a long cold day. It's when the hockey games come alive to give you a reason to sit down and relax or scream like maniacs and chant for your team. Falls when you meet up with your family, and finally get a good book and being able to finish it. Going out and playing in the leaves and jumping into a big pile. Fall's about having fun.

]]>Mon, 22 Oct 2012 02:18:33 GMThttp://bettycooperdiv1.weebly.com/my-blog/my-soccer-game "Woo Hoo! Maddie! Maddie! Maddie!", the crowd chanted. Today, I had a soccer game, as usual. It is Sunday afternoon and my position is defense. Middle defense to be exact. During last practice, on Thursday, they put me in the net for the first time. I've always kind of wanted to be a goalie but I was scared and I have always loved defense. I really liked being the goalie. It felt so good when everyone said "good job!" t [...] ]]>

That's me------>

"Woo Hoo! Maddie! Maddie! Maddie!", the crowd chanted. Today, I had a soccer game, as usual. It is Sunday afternoon and my position is defense. Middle defense to be exact.

During last practice, on Thursday, they put me in the net for the first time. I've always kind of wanted to be a goalie but I was scared and I have always loved defense. I really liked being the goalie. It felt so good when everyone said "good job!" to me.

Now, all of a sudden, three nights later, on game day my coach says "hey, do you want to go in net for the second half?" Well, of course I said yes, but then the anxiety started to kick in. But once I got out there, it was totally easy. I only had to make about 3 saves. By the way, our team won 3-0. It was so fun...I plan to be goalie again!

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” I think that means you follow your dreams. You can always get better, you can never get worse. Do what you like and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. For example, I like soccer and I’ve been playing for six solid years, three days a week. I want to become a soccer player because that’s what I like to do. But because I’m not the greatest runner they didn’t accept me on the select team. So, now to help me get in shape I do exercises twice a week on top of my soccer. I think it means to never give up on what you like to do. You love something for a reason. I think since Ivan the gorilla has been locked up in his cage almost his whole life he hasn’t been able to do what he wants to do. I think what he likes to do is colouring or sketching but we haven’t found out yet. He is being chained back from following his dreams. I think maybe he breaks out of the cage and does what he wants to do. I also think it means if you get pushed down you have to get right back up. But I say never give up. Never surrender. I heard that one off of a show I like called Wipeout. I think Ivan see’s that those glass wall’s are blocking him from his dreams.

Today, in class, we made our very own kites. We designed them a few days ago and then we got to fly them. It was really fun. Mine was supposed to look like a soccer ball ripping out of the material. I'm not sure it really looked like that but I did the best I could. To make the kite you had to slip two long sticks through four holes by weaving. Then you had to tape them down. You had to again tape the string to the sides and do a knot three times. It was your choice to add a tail or not. I chose to add the tail and then you just fold it in half and tape it to the middle of the bottom of the kite, then ta-da!!!! You have a beautiful kite. Once all the classes had a turn building their kite, our whole class got to go out to are gigantic big field and fly our kites. Mine wenttremendously high without me even trying! All in all I was so pleased we got the chance to make them. It was an astonishing day.